Lamentations 3:2
in Lamentations 3He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He hath led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
KJV
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
6 notes on this verseSecond, a subtraction of consolation is viewed. "He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light." Since, after blows, no consolation is offered in the accustomed manner. Thus, Job 3:23 asks: "Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom …
This site's exposition
I am the man who has seen affliction
on Lamentations 3:1-6
Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic, sixty-six verses giving three verses to each of the twenty-two letters. The voice moves from the city to one man: “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath”. He is made to “walk in darkness instead of light”.
This site's exposition
made me walk in darkness
Adam Clarke notes that darkness often stands for affliction in Scripture and light for prosperity. Thomas Aquinas read the verse as comfort taken away after the rod of Lamentations 3:1, and he set it beside Job 3:23. The man is driven away from light.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
seen affliction--his own in the dungeon of Malchiah (Jer 38:6); that of his countrymen also in the siege. Both were types of that of Christ.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
He hath - brought me into darkness - In the sacred writings, darkness is often taken for calamity, light, for prosperity.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אוֹתִ֥י | ʾoti | <obj.> me | H853 → | 10935 times |
| נָהַ֛ג | nahag | he has driven | H5090 → | |
| וַיֹּלַ֖ךְ | vaiyolakh | and he has made walk | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| חֹ֥שֶׁךְ | choshekh | darkness | H2822 → | |
| וְלֹא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֽוֹר׃ | ʾor | light | H216 → |
אוֹתִ֥י<obj.> me
ʾotiH853 →10935 times
נָהַ֛גhe has driven
nahagH5090 →
וַיֹּלַ֖ךְand he has made walk
vaiyolakhH1980 →1546 times
חֹ֥שֶׁךְdarkness
choshekhH2822 →
וְלֹא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
אֽוֹר׃light
ʾorH216 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jude 1:6And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.
it leads to
- 2 Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;
- Matthew 25:41
Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
- Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
- Matthew 8:29
“What do You want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have You come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
- 2 Peter 2:9
if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- 2 Peter 2:4
Through
Job 30:26But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:15
We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
- Jeremiah 14:19
Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of…
- Job 3:25–26
For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
- Jeremiah 8:15
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
On this verse
On this chapter
About Lamentations

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.
